• Special teams covered well. But the Chargers defense whiffed on tackles throughout the game, whether trying to bring down Jake Locker, Chris Johnson, Nate Washington or Kendall Wright. A lack of footspeed was glaring, and widespread. Reminder: Two of the defense's fastest players, Donald Butler and Shareece Wright, didn't play.

• Not being able to pressure Locker on the final drive further exposed a secondary populated with raw, limited performers. On the winning drive, the Chargers never mustered a good pass rush against Locker on his nine pass attempts. The heavy use of off coverage failed. What didn't help was blitzing -- against three five-man rushes, Locker was 3 for 3 for 52 yards. On two of those rushes, the blitzers were Reggie Walker and Richard Marshall, two guys cut by other teams last month (yes, Walker, timing the snap count, sacked Locker in the first quarter.)

• One concern this season for the Chargers pass rush was the edge talent other than Dwight Freeney, who really is still a down end. None of the other edge rushers are giving him much help. Coming off two good games, Freeney didn't do much against Titans tackle Michael Roos. Larry English picked up a 3.7-second sack when Freeney flushed Locker. In all, the Chargers are 26th in sacks per pass play.

• It wasn't fair when the Titans isolated Freeney in pass coverage against sophomore receiver Kendall Wright, who ran away on a crossing pass. In the second half, Freeney moved stiffly after jumping over a body near the line.

• The Chargers are placing extreme demands on Eric Weddle to help offset injuries, inexperience and other limitations elsewhere. It's not working out well. He's not having a Weddle year so far. If Manti Te'o lives up to Chargers expectations, Weddle's job won't be as difficult.

• The numbers support what we're seeing. Defensively, the Chargers are last in the NFL in yards allowed per play (7.0) and last in yards allowed on first down (7.8). They are 31st in pass defense and 28th in rush defense. With 27 points allowed per game, they rank 23rd.

• The next quarterback to take aim at the Chargers, Tony Romo, has completed 72.2 percent of his passes. Quick-passing games are aiding not just Rivers and Romo, but several others. The ball was out in 2.4 seconds on Locker's 34-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass to Justin Hunter.